Deer Creek was under water the last two years. Bunkers completely washed out exposing drainage. Needs a chain saw and a million bucks to get that course playing as it should. Hopefully Great Life will invest.
I live right next to Deer Creek and won’t play there anymore. It is in terrible shape (bunkers, drainage, trees, creek system etc.) So many better courses for the money (Ironhorse, Sycamore, Shoal Creek)
1 Like
How is Swope these days? Do they keep that in good shape when the publinks / mid am qualifier aren’t there?
Swope… what a track. I live 7 minutes from Swope and it would be the last track I would go to in the area. Its overgrown, mediocre at best shape, shrinking greens/fairways. Believe they had spray painted the greens last time I was there. Not to mention the staff was an absolute terror - first tee marshal was yelling at us to go when there were players in the fairway. He claimed “no one can hit them”. My playing partner hit his ball right over their heads! Disaster of a course.
Oh that’s so sad to hear, that was one of the first courses I was playing complete rounds on as a kid
I need to bite the bullet & give Swope another go. Only played 9 holes there right after moving to KC 15 years ago. Was “so-so” at the time but got rained out 1/2 through. As I’ve matured, I’ve come to appreciate some of the older “rough-around-the-edges” layouts by Golden Age architects. Given it’s Tillinghast bones, how cool would it be if the city had enough dough to restore it & maintain it in the manner it deserves.
Maybe @RaynorMan & @thefriedegg can call in a favor to their buddy (and Tilly restoration-master) Keith Foster and have him come bring it back to its former glory.
Have you played Hillcrest CC right down the street from Swope? Only Donald Ross in the area. Played it last weekend. Now, that was a fun course! Certainly better taken care of and not as heavily played as Swope. The bones are there. The land is there. The tradition is there. Unfortunately, it seems they are missing a few chainsaws and fairway mowers.
Check out this cool original routing map. It may have to be my lifes mission to get this thing back to what it was meant to be.
1 Like
Unfortunately, I haven’t made it over there yet, but it’s been on my radar for a while.
Where do you live? I’m going to come break in and steal that map!
I hear ya! You may need to fight me for it. Haha.
I live between Brookside and Plaza district. Yourself?
Way out south in Raymore
Where do you usually play?
Live and play at creekmoor
I don’t live in Wichita and have never been to Wichita but I do really enjoy watching Gregg Marshall’s teams play. The intensity and competitiveness is awesome and he’s steadily raised the talent level there. Hell of a coach and great program.
Alright, back to your regularly scheduled thread…
3 Likes
Hearing Swope reminds me of Minor Park. What a course, one bunker on the entire layout. In high school we used to head over there and give the 90 year old starter a Subway receipt and tee off.
2 Likes
Good stuff @Randy. My family has had season tickets there for 30 some years. It’s so incredible to see this transformation happening there. We were going to games when you couldn’t pay someone to go, and now I’ve watched them play in a Final Four. My wife and I are both alums as well.
(From Sunday’s heartbreaker versus Cincinnati to decide the conference title)
1/5 AAC Conference home opener versus Houston
PS… Pack up the boys and head down for the Web.com’s best tournament. The 17th has a crazy party atmosphere like the WMPO (obviously on a much smaller scale). Past champions include: Lehman, Duval, Toms, Elder, Crane (2), Dufner, Piercy, Vegas, Schniderjans, and Wise. http://www.wichitaopen.com/news/wichita-open-news/143-web-com-tour-outstanding-achievement-award
1 Like
The list of past winners at the Air Capital Classic is quite shocking. Crestview was our high school’s home course. Shooting something around even was a really good day. Seeing these guys play it as par 70 and having to go 20-25 deeeeppppp to be in contention was always crazy to me.
1 Like
@japolo1987 Hi, I just followed you on Twitter, I’m @WSUbrent there. Let’s get out and play soon! Do you walk when you play at all?
Awesome pics and that UC game was a helluva lot of fun to watch. I hope there’s a round 3 in the AAC championship.
As to the Web event, that’s the type of place we’d love to explore. Hopefully sooner than later!
1 Like
Swope is managed by Orion and they do a great job — same company that runs Sycamore Ridge
Sycamore Ridge…they flipped the nines there right?
That wooded nine (I know it as the back) was nuts for us in high school. Had a hay day on that course.